Contenders Crowd Lead in Deep Field at the Players Championship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — If the talent pool in men’s golf were any deeper, the winners each week would be speared by frogmen. A day after Jordan Spieth, the 21-year-old Masters champion, bowed out of the Players Championship, Justin Thomas, 22, moved into contention with a 10-birdie performance at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

Thomas’s seven-under-par 65 in Saturday’s third round catapulted him into a six-way tie for fifth at eight-under 208 with a group that included Sergio García, whose winning score here in 2008 was five-under 283.

“It was one of the best rounds I’ve probably ever played in competition,” said Thomas, a native of Louisville, Ky., who led Alabama to the 2013 N.C.A.A. team title. “To do it at a stage like this and in a field and on a golf course like this to get back in the tournament was big.”

He added, “I didn’t even really realize I made 10 birdies until I got done.”

Thomas and García, 35, are among 16 players within three strokes of the 54-hole leader, Chris Kirk, who posted a 68, for a 54-hole total of 10-under 206. Kirk, a three-time PGA Tour winner, is one stroke ahead of Kevin Kisner (67), Ben Martin (68) and Bill Haas (68).

Kirk appreciated that no lead was safe on this course.

“I remember making a ridiculous up-and-down to make the cut on the number last year and finished 15th or so,” said Kirk, who actually tied for 13th. “You can really do that here. You can really make up a lot of strokes, because everything does get so bunched.”

He added, “So I’ll just go do my thing and try to shoot as low as I can.”

Kisner, who lost a playoff at the Heritage Classic last month, played the front nine in five-under 31, one better than Thomas, whose childhood idol, Tiger Woods, did not fare as well.

Woods went out in 40 on his way to a 75. For the first time since he turned pro in 1996, Woods signed for a round with two double-bogeys on par 5s, both on the front side. He was tied for 68th with Padraig Harrington, Dustin Johnson, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh, a group that has combined for 24 major titles.

Three major winners were circling the leaders: Bubba Watson (69), Adam Scott (69) and Rory McIlroy (70), all part of a nine-way tie for 17th at six-under 210. Twenty-five players are within four strokes of Kirk, who won a FedEx Cup playoff event last year while playing with McIlroy, the world No. 1.

“It seems like half of the tour have a chance to win this thing,” said McIlroy, who had 32 putts, five more than in his opening round of 69.

“I would like to see firm greens,” McIlroy said. “I feel like because they’ve been quite receptive this week, that’s what’s made everyone so bunched together on the leaderboard.”

Thomas played the final nine holes of his second round in three under to make the cut by one stroke. He carried the momentum from his final nine Friday into his first nine Saturday. Thomas sank a 14-footer at No. 1 and followed it with birdies from inside 10 feet on his next three holes. His round also included three bogeys, which his father, Mike, a teaching pro in Kentucky, suspected would upset him. Mike Thomas said he recently complimented his son on his start in 2014-15, which has included four top-10 finishes.

“He was like, ‘I’ve had a fair year,’ ” Mike Thomas said. “I said, ‘You’ve had a great year.’ He was like, ‘I haven’t won.’ These guys are so hard on themselves, and they push themselves so hard. That’s what makes them good. The flip side is, they won’t take credit for the good things they’ve done.”

Justin Thomas hit five drives over 300 yards Saturday and played those holes (Nos. 7, 9, 11, 15 and 18) in three-under. He ranks 21st on the tour in driving distance at 299.4 yards, but he was not always long off the tee.

“When he was a junior golfer, he hit it nowhere,” Mike Thomas said. “The running joke is, he’d call me from an A.J.G.A. event, and I’d go, ‘What’s the number?’ and he’d say, ‘Six.’ That was the number of holes he couldn’t reach. The silver lining there was: He learned to get real good with his long clubs and get it up and down.”

Justin Thomas attended the 2000 PGA Championship in Louisville at Valhalla Golf Club, won by Woods in a playoff against Bob May. Mike Thomas received clubhouse passes as a past president of the Kentucky PGA.

His father was his instructor, but Woods was his idol. “To all those kids in his age group, Tiger was the man,” Mike Thomas said.

Referring to Woods, Mike Thomas added: “You saw the crowd out following him today. He’s still the man.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page SP10 of the New York edition with the headline: Contenders Crowd Lead in Deep Field at the Players Championship . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe